Herod the Great

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

King of the Jews, an Idumæan by birth, made king by the triumvirs in 40 b. c. He is famed in history for his cruelty; and one of his latest acts was the massacre of the Innocents, which he ordered in the hope of killing him who (the Magi had told him) was "born king of the Jews." He died in 2 A. D. HEROD AGRIPPA I., son of Aristobulus by Berenice, daughter of Herod the Great. From his attachment to Caligula he was imprisoned by Tiberius, but on the accession of Caligula (A. D. 37) he received the government of part of Palestine, and latterly all the dominions of Herod the Great. To please the Jews, with whom his rule was very popular, he caused St. James to be put to death, and imprisoned St. Peter. He died in the circumstances related in Acts xii., in A. D. 44. HEROD AGRIPPA II., a Jewish prince; son of Herod Agrippa I.; born about A. D. 27. On his father's death, he being too young to govern, Judea was reduced to a Roman province. He subsequently received the kingdom of Chalcis, and obtained the superintendency of the temple at Jerusalem, where, with his sister, Berenice, he heard the defense of Paul before Festus. Being driven from Jerusalem by by the revolt of the Jews he joined Cestius, and later on Vespasian, and during the siege of Jerusalem was very serviceable to Titus. After its reduction (A. D. 70) he and Berenice returned to Rome. He is supposed to have died there, A. D. 94.